In blast hole drilling it is i.a. important to come close to the rock face of the already finished part of the tunnel or gallery in order to position blast holes as near to parallel with the extension of the imagined tunnel as possible. For that reason there is a desire to keep the dimensions of the rock drilling machine above a drill string axis as small as possible.
For that reason a drill rig having left and a right rig arms are typically equipped with a left and a right version rock drilling machine which is each optimized for the minimizing of said dimensions in each case. Previous rock drilling machines typically have an underside for mounting against a slide, an upper side allowing the desired small distance to the drill string axis and left and right sides preferably also having reduced protrusion.
The fluid inlet and hose arrangements in previous rock drilling machines are typically configured so as to be best adapted for the particular machine. In a known drilling machine there are double inlets/outlets for left and right attachment, half of which having to be plugged for operation which leads to leakage problems, higher costs and cumbersome construction.